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Open data key to interagency, private sector innovation

Monday - 6/24/2013, 7:01pm EDT

By Melissa Dawkins
Special to Federal News Radio

Interagency consolidation of datasets for public and private use is crucial to
driving down agency IT costs and forging new technological advances, according to
Lisa Schlosser, deputy associate administrator in the Office of E-Government and
Information Technology.

"If we're not thinking about this — how do we innovate with less, how do we
free up capital through elimination of duplication, through consolidation, through
use of service orientation, through shared services — we tend to end up
doing less with less," Schlosser said at the Federal IT and Networks Summit
sponsored by MobileGov in Washington on June 20.

Schlosser said agencies ideally would not have budgets in which IT maintenance
costs outstrip development costs, as is currently sometimes the case. To
accomplish this, Schlosser said agencies will need to reduce the number of
different contracts and IT platforms they use. Consolidating contracts will let
save money, which then can be used to invest in new technologies, she said.

When investing in new technologies, Schlosser said agencies should test out the IT
through projects that have quick-turnarounds with timely, achievable goals. She
said projects with longer lifespans tend to fail.

"Putting in place policies and procedures so that you're thinking about
information, not just systems and building a system and thinking about
transactional requirements, but that we're really thinking about the outcome of
what we want to do with information technology, and focusing on the information in
information technology," Schlosser said. "That's really where we want to go with
this."

Schlosser said Data.gov, a
website dedicated to compiling government data into a searchable
catalog, is fueling innovation in both the private sector and across governmental
agencies.

"We released hundreds of thousands of data sets," Schlosser said. "And what's
happened with those data sets — I don't know if we sit back enough and
really think about the innovation that has occurred by simply releasing those
data sets in a way that can be consumed and used in a way that can create economic
benefit and to help to deliver our programs better."

Data.gov, launched in 2009, now hosts 75,713 data sets. Of those, 68,477 are
federal data sets, according to the website.

One use for public data is the creation of mobile applications, which consumers
can download onto smartphones and other mobile devices.

"All because the government released some data, creative people built these
creative applications," Schlosser said.

The Obama administration has placed a high priority on making data more open and
accessible since it took office in 2009.

Most recently, President Barack Obama signed an executive order, "Making Open and Machine
Readable the New Default for Government Information," on May 9 requiring agencies
to comply with the Open Data Policy.

In response, the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy introduced
Project Open Data on May 16 to provide tools and resources
which let developers share and improve code.

"We want to procure and manage our digital assets in smart, secure and affordable
ways," Schlosser said. "And why do we want to do that? We want to consolidate our
contracts so that we have more time to experiment with data, so we have more
resources available to test new products and to more rapidly bring them and
institutionalize them within our business operations, our mission and our
organizations."